Tomb Raider

A New Level Of Tomb Raider Unveiled In E3 Demo

Square Enix gave us a behind-closed-doors demo of Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot, one that showed off a previously unseen level. The first half of the presentation revolved around the familiar sequence where a young Lara escapes death in a waterlogged cavern -- a scene first described in our Tomb Raider cover story and shown a few days ago at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference.

However, things got interesting in the second half of the demo, when a new level of the game was shown, one that takes place in a mountain village. It provided us with a little more of the game's attempt to develop Lara Croft as a character, and also showcased her legendary platforming abilities.

The sequence starts with Lara stumbling upon Conrad Roth, her mentor of sorts, locked in a battle with a wolf. The deadly lupine eventually retreats, but not before mauling Roth badly. Lara rushes to his aid, helping him walk closer to his base camp and the campfire.

Things are bad. Roth need medical attention and a radio transmitter he left in the wolves' den. Lara is forced into action and begins platforming over the building in the village to reach the opening to the abandoned mine that serves as the den. Overall, the platforming seems easy and fast -- more akin to Assassin's Creed than the laborious platforming of earlier Tomb Raiders. Weather also factors in, making things more difficult; at one point Lara slipped off a rainslicked fuselage of a crashed plane suspended in the mountain.

After Lara makes it to the highly perched mine, she enters the dangerous den. At one point, she's attack by a wolf and is forced to use one of her arrows as a weapon, an encounter that plays out like a brief quick-time event. Finally, she finds the transmitter and the first aid kit. From there, Lara negotiates her way back down the base camp and minister to Roth's wounds. At this point, the presenter stopped to tell us that base camps serve a purpose in the game, as they are points where Lara can buy new skills and upgrades, craft new gear from salvage, and fast travel to other campsites.

Here, we get to see a more emotional side of the game. Roth tells Lara she has to be the one to find and climb the radio tower to install the transistor that might bring them help. As opposed to the quippy Lara of past games, this Lara is unsure of herself and scared but also willing to risk her life to help her mentor. It's a nicely done sequence and helps cast Lara in a more complex light. With this nice end to the demo, I once again came away impressed by Tomb Raider.

Game is looking/sounding really good. It's such a long wait tho, I wish it was in 3D, seems like a game that would do well with 3D. They could have made her look a bit better, but it's good enough and the environment looks well done.

Amazing, the "craft new gear from salvage" sounds especially interesting and I can't wait to see how that works out. It seems like Crystal Dynamics has thought of everything and the game is still over a year away, imagine the finished copy! This is going to be on looooong wait, but I can't wait to see the exciting new things shown meanwhile!

This is looking great, but I am confused as to why the humanizing of lara croft is being praised already, yet the same exact thing was the biggest complaint a lot of people had with Metroid other M, a game I actually liked thanks to a metroid game finally having a story that wasn't paper thin. What the hell? Don't get me wrong, I don't have any complaints with T.R., I'm looking forward to it, I just don't understand the double standard.

I have to say. Only regret for not owning a PS3 is not being able to play this Tomb Raider. Really a revival of the whole game line was in order as other companies were just having a hell of a time trying fit the past story lines into newer games. This Tomb Raider basically is just saying, "The old story sucked and lets start with a younger, a bit more human, and hotter Lara." that kinda of vie.

Loved every 1 of the tomb raider games, there were all that little different in there own way... bring something new each time. but in the case of this one, everything is new and im soo excited for the release, just cn't wait